Neck pain

Neck pain

Neck pain affects approximately 80% of people at some point in their lifetime. It may result from sleeping the wrong way, poor body mechanics (such as poor posture, or holding the telephone between your shoulder and ear), or from an injury. Symptoms of cervical spine include:

Neck pain
Shoulder pain
Arm pain
Tingling in the arms, hands, or fingers
Numbness in the arms, hands, or fingers
Sharp pains in the arms, hands, or fingers
Weakness in arms
Frequently dropping items
Weakness in legs
Tripping or stumbling when walking
Weight loss
Headaches
Nausea


Causes

The healthy neck is well balanced and allows for movement, stresses, and strains of the head and body. If parts of the neck are injured, start to degenerate, or become unbalanced, it can be a source of neck pain, shoulder stiffness, and arm pain. Many patients report numbness, tingling, or sharp pains in their arms, hands, or fingers.

Some common cervical spine diagnosis are:

Adjacent Segment Degeneration
Ankylosing Spondylitis
Arthritis, Spondylosis, Osteosis
Cervical Deformity
Chiari Malformation
Degenerative Discs
Normal/Abnormal Motion
Failed Fusion
Foramen Stenosis
Herniated Disc
Infections
Kyphosis
Muscular Pain
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Syringomyelia
Trauma
Tumors
Whiplash

Cervical spondylosis is caused by degenerative changes in the bones and intervertebral disks of the neck. A less technical name for this condition is osteoarthritis of the neck, or degenerative disk disease of the neck.
Cervical spondylosis is primarily due to aging. The condition usually first starts after the age of 40 and continues to progress as you age. Men tend to develop cervical spondylosis at an earlier age than women. The condition often leads to myelopathy. Cervical spondylosis is the most common condition of the neck that can affect the spinal cord.


Symptoms of cervical spondylosis include:
-Arm, hand, or finger weakness
-Neck pain that radiates down the arm..

Treatment options for cervical spondylosis include neck immobilization, pharmacologic treatments, lifestyle modifications, and physical therapy. Commonly utilized pharmagologic management of this disorder includes the use of NSAIDs, tricyclic antidepressants, and steroids. Physical therapy management of cervical spondylosis includes isometric neck strengthening exercises as well as gentle stretching. Modalities such as cervical traction and manual manipulation are also helpful.

Health tips-New hope for patients with end-stage liver disease

Transplanting their own (autologous) bone marrow-derived stem cells into 48 patients with end-stage liverdisease resulted in therapeutic benefit to a high number of the patients.
Yet, the mechanism by which the infusion of CD34 stem cells improves liver function remains elusive, they said.
According to the study's corresponding author, Mark A. Zern of the University of California Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, CA, the study sought to evaluate the safety and efficacy of transplanting autologous bone marrow-derived CD34+ stem cells in 48 patients, 36 of whom had chronic, end-stage hepatitis C-induced liver disease, and 12 with end-stage autoimmune liver disease.
"For all patients there was a statistically significant decrease in peritoneal cavity fluid, or 'ascites.' There was also clinical and biochemical improvement in a large percentage of patients who received the transplantation," said Zern.
The researchers reported that they obtained "reasonable numbers of CD34+ cells" that were then "amplified and partially differentiated into hepatocyte precursor cells."
"This enabled us to transplant as many as one billion of these cells per patient. The finding of improvement in ascites in a significant number of patients is impressive and somewhat surprising, suggesting that cell transplantation might be clinically significant beyond the improvement in laboratory parameters," explained Zern.
The team also reported that prior to transplantation, the cells were already beginning to develop a hepatocyte phenotype while in culture, suggesting that the cells may have acted as hepatocyte-like cells following engraftment.
The findings were reported in the journal Cell Transplantation.ANI